MITCHY SLICK  (June 2007) | Interview By: Eddie Gurrola

       Dubcnn was invited to chop it up with Mitchy Slick in his neighborhood of Southeast San Diego, where we conducted a two part video interview. In addition to seeing the surroundings in which all the songs he writes actually take place, viewers will also hear details on his new album projects, including the Mitchy/Messy Marv collaboration album, "Messy Slick," a new collaboration album with Damu, and a new solo album, entitled "48 Hours On Gang Street." We also speak about his relationship with producer J Wells, and he tells us about the game he soaked up from hip-hop legend Sir Jinx.
 

As always we have both the transcript and the video for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: eddiegurolla@dubcnn.com

 

Interview was done in May 2007.

Questions Asked By : Eddie Gurrola

Full Interview In Video For Download : Here (Video: WMV)

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Watch The Video Interview (Streaming WMV)
Press Play To Start Streaming Footage: Fast Connection Recommended

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Dubcnn: OK, so you've got your album, “Urban Survival Syndrome,” that dropped a few months ago. Looking back on it now, are you happy with how it turned out and everything?

Yeah, I’m happy with how the product turned out. But I’m not happy with how [it sold]…shit, I wanna be platinum, you know what I’m sayin! So, until I do that, I can’t really say I’m happy with the shit. I just gotta wait for the opportunity to come for me to be able to, you know, do what I gotta do, to get it as big as I want it to be. [I want to] be on TV everyday, be on the radio everyday, that’s all it is now, you know?

There’s a lot of shit [you need] to sell records nowadays other than just the music, so, you know, I’m happy with the music. I love working with Muggs, Jelly Roll, Khalil, the whole camp, the homie Dubb Knoxx. But it’s just the machine that’s needed, you know what I’m sayin’?


Dubcnn: So, there were a lot of real deep songs on the album. How do you go about writing a song? What’s your process like on that?

All I do is just think about something I’ve been through. I mean, everybody see it, but I’m talking about, if you listen to all my songs - all the details, the currencies that are really happening, it ain’t nothing for me, you know what I’m sayin’? I never run out of shit to write about, ‘cause I done been through so much shit. Everybody done been through a lot of shit, but a lot of us don’t know how to get it out the way I know how to get it out.


Dubcnn: So, how about this new album you’ve got with Messy Marv, “Messy Slick”?

Oh yeah, that “Messy Slick.” Yeah, that’s just something to expand the fan base and shit, you know what I’m sayin’? That’s my nigga too. Me and Mess make some good music together, got a lot of beats from a lot of cats, you know what I’m sayin’? But that’s one of them grimy records, what we would call like an underground West Coast record. “Urban Survival Syndrome” was more of a record that was for the mainstream, and not mainstream music, but, I’m sayin’, them type of songs that didn’t just direct straight to niggas in Southern California. But, it needed to be pushed in a big way as well.

But this shit I’m doin with Messy Marv, I got an album with Damu comin out, and I got an album called “48 Hours on Gang Street.” Them records right there, they gonna be directly, straight, you know what I’m sayin’, towards the core fan base, you know what I’m sayin’, all the swap meet shoppers and shit.


Dubcnn: So, how did you initially hook up with Messy Marv for this album?

Me and Messy Marv was like…I got on my first shit, up in Frisco and shit, the first shit I got on up there, you know what I’m sayin’, as far as getting on and doin’ shit. It was gonna be distributed nationally. Yeah, it was with Mess and shit, hooked up through my nigga Guce from Frisco, and through Guce, and through other cats, they always say, you know, me and Messy kind of reminded them of each other. Just, you know, a little short black nigga with braids, [that] talks a lot of shit.

Just from that, me and Messy, you know, he shouted me out on a song, before I had even met him and shit. I was like, “OK, that nigga on what I’m on!” and after that, man it was like nothin’. We just hooked up. Me, him, and the homie Nemo from Siccness put this project together homie, and it’s all knocks on there. Got the homeboy Dubb Knoxx on there makin’ beats, got beats from the homie from Harmon from the Batcave, got the homeboy 2:11 featured on there, Tiny Doo, Damu, [so] it’s gonna be some shit!

And, it ain’t like all the rest of them muthafuckin’ records, because Mitch put his time into his shit. I mean, I didn’t get to snatch it up and do everything I wanted with the muthafucka, but, for the most part, it’s all my influence on it. So, when muthafuckas hear it, it ain’t finna like just be some shit where a nigga just threw some songs on to get some dough. Naw, its some knockers on that muthafucka, you know what I’m sayin?


Dubcnn: Tell us about the Damu collaboration album.

Me and Damu, homie? That’s straight for the hoods of Southeast. Everybody gonna love it ‘cause of how it is, you know what I’m sayin’, but mainstream America wouldn’t even understand that shit. We’ve got a song on there called, “El De Beans,” and it just talks about how my neighborhood and his neighborhood [are] comin’ together, and gettin’ shit right around here.

There’s a lot of shit going on around here in Southeast San Diego. A lot of Black on Black shit, not even Black on Black, [but] Blood on Blood, Crip on Crip, just everybody against everybody out here. It’s like a zoo. So, me and Damu, we’re trying [to] come together to at least get the shit between our neighborhoods straight. It’s been straight, but it just makes it even that much more solid, and [hopefully] we can build from here and get all this shit right.


Dubcnn: There’s a lot of San Diego rap that’s still really underground, and not a lot of people know a whole lot about the artists down here. Who would you recommend listening to, as far as new artists?

Any Wrongkind shit. We’ve got about 15 projects in the street. Me and my big homie Baby Jack, we’ve been trying to figure out a way to get this shit to where we just take over the whole town, get a lot of the bullshit gang shit out of the way, and try to make everybody a fan. I wouldn’t give a fuck, as long as he’s repping the Kind.

So, all the Wrongkind projects, Damu’s projects, [and] my nigga Cricet. He’s from the blue side. He makes good shit.


Dubcnn: What other cities are you feeling hip-hop from? Tell us about Strong Arm Steady.

Oh man, me and Strong Arm Steady got some shit going on right now. That’s me and the homeboys Phil Da Agony and Krondon. We’ve got some major shit going on right now. We’re bumping that shit in the background right now. We’ve got crazy shit from DJ Khalil on there, the homie Thayod, everybody know Thayod from some of that OG Xzibit shit. I’ve got the homie Jelly Roll making the knocks on there, everybody know Jelly Roll from the Snoop shit, the Jadakiss, and the Xzibit shit. It’s finna be right.

That’s the group album, we’ve got a deal right now through Warner Brothers, through Blacksmith/Warner Brothers. That shit is gonna be taking it to a whole other level. I’m gonna be able to be seen in a whole bunch of different arenas that I haven’t been seen in yet.


Dubcnn: So that’s gonna be a major label thing with big promotion and everything?

Hopefully, homie. I don’t know how big, but I know we’re going to have a budget to do some shit we ain’t never got to do with none of my shit. But shouts to the homies at Angeles Records, the homie Muggs, they did all they could do at this point, they showed love, and they did more than all the rest of these muthafuckas.

That’s what we need on the West, homie. Everybody coming together. They saw something in me, put some money into a nigga, [and] put [me] out. We’ve got to go the hard route here on the West Coast – everybody else, they just pop in every city, so they get on. Out here, we’ve got to grind, and I’m a grinder, you know?


Dubcnn: Yeah, and you’ve been known for pushing your mixtapes out independently. Do you have any advice for up and coming rappers who are trying to get their mixtapes out?

You’ve got to get your street shit going first. You’ve got to get the buzz in the streets if you ain’t no big time nigga.


Dubcnn: Tell us about your relationship with producer J. Wells.

Oh, me and J. Wells have been fucking around for years. I met J. Wells through the Wolfpac homies. Me and that nigga went on tour, [and] we did like 36 cities together with Tha Alkaholiks, from here all the way to New York, through Texas, Phoenix, and Canada. Me and J. Wells’s bro, which is my homeboy Styles from the Wolfpac, hooked up, and me and J. Wells did one song I had called “Platinum Dreams.” That shit, on the radio out here, was the most requested song. After that, me and that dude have just been making hits.


Dubcnn: In your last interview with us, you said that you consider yourself a student of West Coast hip-hop…

Yeah, I got laced up by Sir Jinx. Sir Jinx is Dr. Dre’s first cousin, so I got the game first hand. I got to hear Ice Cube and them’s demos and shit! Ice Cube, Sir Jinx, and K-Dee mixtapes from back in the days! I got to hear Yo-Yo’s raps when Del Tha Funkee Homosapien used to call and record the raps over the message machine for her to hear them, and then recite the raps back. Jinx taught me all the shit. He [taught me about] equipment – how to make beats. He didn’t know he was doing it, but while I was there with him [I picked it up.]

I met him through the homeboy DJ Jam, which is Snoop Dogg’s DJ. We just met up, [Jinx] was working on the Xzibit album when I met him, [which was] in 2000. We just built a relationship. Sir Jinx, he produced all that Ice Cube shit, “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted,” [and] he just let me soak it all up, and I ran with it. So, I really say that I’m a student of West Coast hip-hop, because I got it from the niggas that invented this shit!


Dubcnn: From all your experience, what would you say are the key elements to making a good song?

Making a good song?


Dubcnn: Yeah.

Keeping it real, and having a good beat. I’m a beat dude. To me, it starts with the beat, because you can get a party cracking with an instrumental. You can’t get no party cracking with a straight acapella! So, I’m a beat cat. I’m into beats – hard knockin’ ass beats. From there, you’ve got to kick some real shit. That’s all the elements. Keep your vocab in tact, keep your originality in tact, keep your flow in tact, on beat and shit, and keep your muthafuckin’ ideas fresh. Fresh new words, I’m into all of that shit. I don’t try to be too hip-hop, because my fan base ain’t too hip-hop’d the fuck out. They’re mostly street niggas and shit. But, you’ve got to think about all of that shit, and that’ll make a good song, you know?